Several new studies have confirmed the success of a NASA test mission to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid. The studies suggest the experiment was an important first step in learning how spacecraft might be able to protect Earth from asteroids or other space objects that might threaten the planet.
On September 26, at 19:14 ET, the US space agency s DART spacecraft intentionally crashed into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos.